City of Midland
Freedom of Information Act
(P.A. 442 of 1976, as amended)
Administrative Policy, as of 11-14-11
Subsection 6(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act (the “Act”), MCL 15.231, et
seq. provides that a public body that is a city shall designate an individual
as its Freedom of Information Act Coordinator.
Subsection 4(3) of the Act
requires a public body to establish and publish procedures and guidelines to
implement the assessing of costs under said Act.
Section 10 of the Act
provides for the establishment of appeals from denials.
The City of Midland hereby
adopts Public Act 442 of 1976, being MCL 15.231, et seq.
The City Attorney is hereby
designated as the City of Midland’s Freedom of Information Act Coordinator.
The City Council
of the City of Midland hereby establishes the following procedures and guidelines
pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act:
1.
The
City Attorney is hereby designated as the Freedom of Information Act
Coordinator for the City of Midland. The
City Attorney may designate other individuals to act on his or her behalf in
accepting and processing requests for public records, and in approving a denial
under Subsections 5(4) and 5(5) of the Act.
2.
Original
public documents may be viewed on the premises at which they are located
between regular business hours, which shall be Monday through Friday from 8:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an appointment.
3.
The
City shall respond to a request within five (5) business days, as allowed under
the Act, after receiving a request unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the
person making the request or unless the City exercises its right under Section
5(2)(d) of the Act to extend its time to respond by an
additional ten (10) business days.
4.
If
a request is denied, an appeal process shall be set out in the denial response.
5.
Fees
shall be charged for providing copies of public records. In computing such fees, the following charges
shall be assessed;
a.
The
City will charge a fee for a public record search, for the necessary copying of
a public record for inspection, or for providing a copy of a public record.
b.
The
fee will be the actual mailing costs and the actual incremental cost of
duplication including labor, the cost of search, examination, review, and the
deletion and separation of exempt from nonexempt information.
c.
The
cost of labor will be the hourly wage, including fringe benefits, of the
lowest-paid employee capable of retrieving the information.
d.
The
City will not charge for the cost of search, examination, review and deletion
and separation of exempt from nonexempt information unless failure to do so
would result in unreasonably high costs to the City because of the nature of
the request in the particular instance and the City specifically identifies the
nature of the unreasonably high costs.
The determination of whether costs incurred in responding to a request
are unreasonably high shall be made relative to the usual or typical costs
incurred by the City of responding to requests.
e.
The
City will charge for the actual incremental cost of duplicating public records,
which cost is currently twenty-five (25) cents per page. The City will utilize the most economical
means available for making copies of public records.
f.
A
person requesting public records may choose to make arrangements with the City
to examine records on site during normal business hours, particularly in cases
where there is a large volume of materials.
To protect its public records from loss, unauthorized alteration, mutilation,
or destruction, the City may require the presence of a City employee while a
person examines original public records.
The City may charge the requesting person the labor cost of the City
employee if the review is for an extended period of time and failure to charge
for the cost of the employee would result in unreasonably high costs to the
City.
g.
If
the total fee is estimated to be more than $50.00, the City will require a
good-faith deposit of one-half of the total fee. The City will notify the person requesting
the public records in writing of the estimated fee and deposit required. Fees are required to be paid prior to the
release of the public records.
h.
Fees
up to $20.00 will be waived for requesters who submit an affidavit indicating
they are on public assistance or are indigent.
i.
Fees
may waived or reduced if the request is deemed by the
City to be in the public interest.
6.
Procedures
for processing a request shall be established by the Freedom of Information Act
Coordinator, made available to the public, and updated as necessary.